Updates and Such!

Hey y'all! Well, it's been quite awhile since I've been seen around these parts, but I did want to jump on in with a couple of updates.

I am still sewing and quilting of course, but find little time to write and share photos beyond sporadic Instagram posting. I've been teaching a little bit too, including a super fun seasonal Foundation Paper Piecing workshop at Needlework here in Hamilton last month.

One major thing I have to share (if you've been following the news I'm sure you already know some of the ins-and-outs) is the demise of my Craftsy shop. Not to go into too many of the nitty-gritty details, but basically, Craftsy decided to shut down the shops of many independent designers (including some very well-know people in the quilt industry); even those whose shops weren't shut down are being told which patterns they are and are not allowed to sell (for serious).

I was told by Craftsy staff that some designers would be invited back to the platform later in the year, but I think they've really burned some bridges here (I know designers who weren't culled but who are leaving anyway because of this). I've been with Craftsy since the very beginning and have the personal emails from when they first launched where they asked me to help them promote the site. We were in talks for me to do classes for them, but I didn't feel ready at the time. They actively promoted my patterns in blog posts, newsletters, on FB, etc. And then this. It doesn't feel good.

Designers were only given a week's notice that this was happening, and that week fell over the holidays (my shop was shut down on Dec 28th). Suffice it to say, that left little to no time to research new options for hosting my free patterns and templates. All pay patterns were already in my Etsy shop, so that's good to go but a few sets of free templates and cross stitch patterns were only on Craftsy. Those templates will, unfortunately, remain unavailable until I can find another good hosting medium. I'll let you know when they have a new home!

And last but not least so that this post isn't completely devoid of pictures, and to give an older tutorial a little bit of love, let's take a look back at the Pieced Center String Blocks tutorial!

I posted this tutorial 8.5 years ago and it is still one of the most popular posts on the entire site. On occasion, people still send me pictures of quilts using this tutorial (or the sister coaster tutorial). So in honour of Moda hosting a "String Quilt Along" (follow #modastringquilt on IG), I thought I'd remind everyone about this little beauty!

8-9 years ago, string quilt were all the rage in the quilting community, so this was just my little take and adaptation of a more traditional style. It's so fun to see that strings quilts are, once again, having a little mini resurgence!

Anyhoo, I best sign off now, and no promises, but I will do my very utmost to not let another year and a half go by without posting!

Tutorial: Falling Maple

Hey y'all! How's it going? A few months back I showed the original incarnation of the Falling Maple quilt that I made for my friends' baby Vivian, and I got a few requests for a tutorial or pattern, so here it is! Falling Maple is an updated take on the traditional maple leaf block - I love taking traditional quilting blocks and making them into a one block quilt! It's a great way to show off larger prints or special fabrics.

This is the slightly scrappy version of Falling Maple, but it can also be done with only one print for the leaf (like Vivian's) or even scrappier. In the tutorial, I'll demonstrating how to make the scrappy version, but if you want to make a solid leaf version, simply replace the leaf fabrics with 3/4 yard of your preferred choice.

Materials:
1 yard solid for background
2 half yards for leaf (2 different prints)
fat eighth for stem
1 1/3 yard batting
1 1/3 yard backing fabric
1/3 yard binding fabric

*Finished quilt measures 40x40". All seams are 1/4" unless otherwise stated. Press in between steps.

Directions:

-From back ground fabric cut two 2.5x36.5" strips, two 2.5x40.5" strips, two 13" squares, one 12.5" squares, and one 10.75" square.
-From first half yard, cut two 12.5" squares and one 13" square.
-From second half yard, cut one 12.5" square and one 13" square.
-From stem fabric, cut one 3.5x18" rectangle (ignore the matching square in the picture above, I changed the layout of my fabrics after taking this).
-Pair each of the 13" print squares with one 13" solid square for your half square triangles (HSTs).

-On the wrong side of each 13" solid square, draw a line (using a pencil) diagonally from corner to corner.
-Place one 13" solid square and one 13" print square right sides together. Pin.

-Sew a seam 1/4" away on either side of the drawn line.

-Cut the block in two along the drawn line. Open up each piece and press. If necessary, trim the piece down to 12.5" square, making sure to trim off the little nubbins.

Look at that - half square triangles! Repeat the above steps with your remaining pair of 13" squares.

Now we're onto the stem block!

-Take the 10.75" square and draw a line (on the wrong side) diagonally from corner to corner. Draw another line 1/4" away on either side of the original line.

-Using the middle of the three lines as a guide, cut the block in half so that you're left with two triangles.

-Pair one triangle half and the stem piece, right sides together. Use a ruler to make sure that the triangle piece is centred on the stem piece. Pin and sew along the drawn line.

-Repeat with the other triangle piece, making sure that it is also centred. Trim the piece down to 12.5" square, making sure to centre the stem strip (you can see this square trimmed in the picture below).

-Lay out your blocks in a 3x3 grid following the layout shown in the above picture. Sew the block in each row together and then sew those rows together! Sew a 2.5x36.5" strip to both the top and bottom of the top. Sew a 2.5x40.5" strip to both the left and right sides of the top.

-Sandwich, baste, and quilt as preferred. Bind as usual!

If you're interested, the sample made for this tutorial is also available for sale in my Etsy shop!

If you make a quilt using it, please feel free to email me or to add pictures of your completed project to the Miss Print Flickr pool.

Magazine Feature + a Giveaway!

Hey y'all! How ya doing? Look at me, blogging after only two days - I think I'm doing pretty good at jumping back on the bandwagon!

Back in the fall, I was approached by Quilter's Connection magazine about contributing to their Spring 2014 issue all about 'modern quilting'. I've previously worked with the magazine before when I was interviewed in my capacity as President of the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild (have I mentioned yet that I resigned as President at the end of 2013?) and was tickled to be asked again. While I wasn't able to contribute a brand new design to the magazine because of time constraints and prior commitments, I gave the magazine permission to republish my Ziggy Zaggy Table Topper pattern which originally appeared on the blog way back in 2011.

In case you haven't heard of Quilter's Connection, it is a Canadian magazine, published out of British Columbia by the lovely Heather. I'm not sure if it is available in the US, but I know it can be found in stores across Canada and is also available as both a physical and digital subscription.

The table topper shown in the main pattern picture is the one I made back in 2011, but then QC had another one made to show another colour option. I always like it when magazines do this because it helps the reader to see how a design could fit with their own personal aesthetic.

Hey look, it's me! Since I'm usually the one taking the pictures, this was one of the only ones I had to send to Heather for my little bio. I probably should do a head shot at some point in time.

This issue also features designs from Cheryl Arkison (who is rad) and a slew of other great Canadian quilters. I feel like I'm in good company.

As you can see from the first picture in this post, I received four copies of magazine. You know what that means, right? It's giveaway time! One lucky person will win a copy of the magazine - woot! Here's what you've got to do:

1. Leave a comment letting me know what is your most favourite thing 

about your particular country of residence.

 

2. Leave another comment if you are a follower of my blog.

That's it! Two easy-peasy ways to enter! I will close the comments in a week (on March 28th) and announce the winner here on the blog. International entries are, as always, welcome! Also, please remember that I have comment moderation enabled so if you don't see your comment right away it just means that I haven't had the chance to approve it yet (duplicate comments will be deleted).

*the giveaway is now closed*

The Second Euclid

While browsing some pictures on my phone, I realized I had never shown pictures of the second completed Euclid that I introduced in this tutorial! Since my computer was crashed at the time (and still is), I used my phone to take photos of the finished quilt and for the tutorial, since I wouldn't be able to transfer my photos off of my DSLR. I think with all of the planning and excitement around teaching at Sewing Summit, heading to the UK for work, and the lead-up to Christmas just pushed the finished quilt right from my mind!

Many of you know that the original Euclid quilt was made many moons ago and a picture of it accompanied me to my first ever quilt market (the quilt itself actually accompanied me to the UK this past fall). After I revealed it on the blog, I received many requests for a tutorial or pattern. At the time, I fully intended to do just that but then it slipped away. Fast forward to the Summer of 2013 (a full three years after completing the first quilt) and there was a resurgence of people asking about the pattern.

In the end, I decided to offer Euclid as a free tutorial on my blog and gave the completed quilt to my godmother when she got married in October. Two birds with one stone - woot!

When I was originally thinking about making a second Euclid, I was intending to make it much bigger (which would be super-easy)! I had bought all of this Botany with that idea in mind, so I incorporated a bunch into the backing and used different brown-hued strips for a scrappy-ish binding. There is also one piece of Flora & Fauna (also from Lauren and Jessi Jung for Moda) in the backing since the two lines matched so well.

Name: Euclid

For: Kim and Mike

Size: 48x64"

Completed: October 03, 2013

The full tutorial can be found here.

Tutorial: Welcome to the Neighbourhood

Hey y'all! Things have been quiet around these parts lately but that's because I'm in the middle of getting everything ready for the EPP class I'm teaching at Sewing Summit - I cannot believe that it's only 10 days away. I'm so excited! But let's not talk about that right now, let's get onto a fun, new tutorial - woot!

I received these lovely fabrics in the mail a couple of weeks ago from Liberty of London and Sew, Mama, Sew. These fabrics are from the Stile collection by Liberty Art Fabrics and they are lovely! You would not believe how excited I was to receive a package marked with the Liberty logo in the mail - I've never been able to buy anything directly from Liberty, so it was quite a treat! Now why, you may ask, would Liberty and SMS possibly send me these beauties? To take part in a super-fun pillow challenge of course! And, because I'm me and I love to write patterns, I decided to turn the challenge into a tutorial - woot!

Introducing... Welcome to the Neighbourhood! This little pillow uses all 8 of the Liberty prints I was sent, plus a few solids, to create a little gathering of sketchy applique houses! This tutorial is more about the applique than the specific dimensions of the pillow itself so you can feel free to make it any size you'd like (mine is about 9x13"). So let's go!

Materials:
-Scraps (prints and solids) for the houses
-Linen background fabric
-Black thread
-Heat and Bond (or other paper-backed fusible web)
-Template

Directions:

Print off the houses template (print at 100% without scaling). Using your fusible web, trace each piece from the template onto the paper side.

Cut out the templates from the fusible web, leaving a little bit of room around each template. Label each template so that alignment and fabric selection is easier.

Following the directions for your specific web, steam the template (glue-side down) to the wrong side of your fabric.

Cut out each template along your tracing lines.

Peel off the paper backings and decide on the placement of your pieces against the linen background fabric  - as you can see from the picture above, the roof overlaps the chimneys and a teeny bit of the body of the house. Follow the directions for your fusible web to fuse them into place.

Repeat the above with the window and door pieces. Fuse into place.

Now here's where we get to the fun sketchy bit! Using your black thread, stitch around all of the pieces that you've fused. This is supposed to look sketchy and slightly uneven - try not to get hung up on perfection here! It's all part of the fun! Make sure to go around each bit so that they are permanently stitched down.

As you can see, after I finished sketchy-stitching my bits down, I added another strip of Liberty fabric across the top to resemble the sky. I also added some sketchy wisps out of the chimneys, and hand stitched a french knot onto each door for a door knob.

I finished off the pillow by stitching a piece of cotton batting to the wrong side of both the front and back pieces of the pillow to give it a little loft. I used another Liberty print on the back (and for the label) and did a simple turned finish.

I hope you like my little tutorial and that it inspires you to try some sketchy applique - it's quite fast and fun! If you do end up using the Welcome to the Neighbourhood templates or tutorial, I would love to see it! Either share it in my Flickr group or feel free to drop me a line!

Thanks so much to both Liberty of London for the fabrics and to the entire Sew, Mama, Sew team for putting this challenge together - I sure had a good time!

Tutorial: The Euclid Quilt

Hey y'all! You ready for this? After years of being asked about the original Euclid quilt, here is a tutorial just for you! As I mentioned in my last post, I have gotten many requests for a tutorial or pattern for this quilt over the last three years and after showing Alex snuggled up under it recently on Instagram, I received a renewed wave of requests. I decided that I should just do it! It's a pretty easy quilt to put together - it's the math that seems to be a killer for people who've tried to figure it out for themselves. That's why it's called Euclid. Let's go!!

Materials:
24 - 2.5"xWOF strips of fabric
1 Yard solid fabric
4 Yards fabric for backing
1/2 Yard for binding

*Finished quilt measures 48x64". All seams are 1/4" unless otherwise stated. Press in between steps. Also, you don't have to use a solid for the centre of the blocks - something like a text print, or texture (like Sketch) would be really fun! Fabrics used are Botony by Lauren and Jessi Jung and Kona White.

Directions:

-From each 2.5"xWOF strip cut two (2) 2.5"x4.5" strips and two (2) 2.5x16.5" strips.
-From the 1 yard of solid fabric cut twenty-four (24) 4.5x12.5" rectangles.
-Pair up the four pieces from each WOF strip with one solid rectangle. These five pieces will comprise one finished block.

-Sew one 2.5x4.5" strip to each end of the solid rectangle. Press.

 

-Sew one 2.5x16.5" strip to each long side. Press.

You now have one finished rectangle block. Repeat the above steps with your remaining strip and solid sets.

-Take three of your finished rectangles and lay them out like the above. Sew the two horizontal rectangles together. Press. Sew the vertical rectangle to the previously sewn horizontal rectangles. Press. I like to call this the "big rectangle block".

*Sorry, that there aren't any pictures for the next stop. But you can refer to the finished quilt top above. You can also refer to the colouring sheet that I've made (link is below).

There are four rows of two big rectangle blocks that make up the quilt top. Lay out your blocks as indicated below and sew together.

Row 1 (Top): Vertical rectangles to the left

Row 2: Vertical rectangles to the right

Row 3: Vertical rectangles to the left

Row 4: Vertical rectangles to the right

Your quilt top is now finished - yay for you! Sandwich, quilt as desired, and bind!

If you would like a colouring sheet for the quilt, you can get it here!

My quilt isn't finished yet, but I'll show it here when it is. It's actually going to be a wedding present for my godmother who is getting married in October. Have I mentioned that I have two (TWO!) weddings and my birthday all in the same weekend?! Craziness.

So what do you think? I hope that those who have been asking for a tutorial or pattern for this quilt for the past three years are excited to finally have it. If you do end up making the quilt, make sure that you post pictures in my Flickr group! I'm excited to see what you do.

Introducing... Doughnut Kiss!

Hey y'all! So, it's been a little while since I've been seen around these parts, I'm finding that with work and some other goings on that I don't have quite as much time to sew as I would like. That's not to say I haven't been doing anything though - I'm still working away on my Hermione socks, am writing a new quilt tutorial (yay!) which will hopefully be here soon, and have been finishing up my sample for my Sewing Summit class.

Since, I'm trying to make a fresh start, I decided that I might as well welcome myself back to this space (haha!) with a little something for you! Since my Sewing Summit English Paper Piecing class is less about the pattern I'm sharing, and more about tips and tricks for EPP, I thought that I would share all of the templates and such for my sample here. How does that sound?

So this is the sample I sewed up recently for my class, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to sew up another quilt version that includes interlocking Doughnut Kisses. I don't even know where the name Doughnut Kiss came from for this, but I just thought it was so funny that I'm sticking with it!

Now, I'm not going to go into a whole EPP tutorial here, but I'll give you a couple of tips. Since these pieces are a bit bigger (2"-4" sides) I used the EPP method where you sew through the templates rather than just whipping around the corners like I demonstrated in my QAYG Hexie Coaster tutorial. This helps to keep the 1/4" seams from popping out away from the template.

Even though I included a template page for the 2" squares to download, to be a bit more environmentally friendly, I recommend just cutting the square from a regular piece of paper. You can get 20 2" squares out a regular A4 piece of paper - you will need 21 square for the pillow so just cut the remaining square from the scrap generated by cutting your other templates.

I just wanted to share the back because I love it! I did the standard envelope back that I demonstrated in my Not-You-Traditional-Log-Cabin-Pillow tutorial (it's even the same size so you can use all of the same measurements). This is the first time that I've ever finished the whole way around a pillow with binding and I really love the look!

The templates for the squares and both sizes of the elongated hexagons, as well as a colouring sheet featuring the interlocking design can be found here. Just a note on the templates, all sides should measure 2" except for the long sides are the larger size of elongated hexagons which should measure 4". Be sure to print out the templates at 100% without scaling; if you have any problems, you may need to fiddle with your printer a bit.

Here's just a little example of a coloured in sheet. The sheet contains a finite number of sections so if you want to make it bigger you may need to do some creative taping together. For the crosses you can be super scrappy, or go more tonal with you colour choices. It's really up to you and each different combination of fabrics will create entirely different looks!

I really hope that you enjoy the templates and I'd love to see any example using the Doughnut Kiss templates that you come up with!

Templates Download

Tutorial: Quilt-As-You-Go Hexie Coasters!

Y'all ready for this? I've got a new tutorial for you... may I present the Quilt-As-You-Go Hexie Coasters!

Woot! I actually made this coaster and took all of the pictures for this post about two months ago... I think I may have procrastinated in the posting a little bit *blush*. But I think it turned out pretty darned cute, don't you? Okay, now who wants to get started?! Let's go!!

Materials:

For Hexies:
9 fabric squares measuring 2.5x2.5" each
9 one-inch hexagon templates*
Hand sewing needle
Hand sewing thread

For Coasters:
5x5" piece of muslin or scrap fabric for foundation**
5x5" piece of thin batting
5x5" piece of fabric for backing
Scrap of fabric 1.25x22" for binding

* You can make your own hexagon graph paper here (just be sure to select the 1 inch option and measure one side to be sure after you've printed them out) or order some pre-made templates from here. I've done both.
**This piece of fabric is merely used as a foundation for the hexagons and will not be seen, so go ahead and use something truly ugly!!

Now, I'm going to start off by showing you the method that I use to make hexies. This method works especially well for this type of project, but if you make your hexies a different way - go for it! You may need to be a little more careful when you get to the quilt-as-you-go portion of this tutorial, but I think it'll still work out. If you already know how to make hexies, just skip this portion of the tutorial, but make sure that you have 9 completed hexies before moving on to the next portion.

English Paper-Piecing Directions:

Pin one hexagon template to one 2.5x2.5" fabric square and trim the fabric down, leaving 1/4" around all sides of the hexagon template. Have a length of thread in your needle, knotted, and ready to go!

Fold one edge of the fabric down so that it is snug against the edge of the template.

Fold the adjoining edge down so that it too is snug against the template and so that the fabric overlaps at the corner.

Run your needle and thread through the corner of the fabric, being careful not to pick up any of the paper template in the process. Pull the thread all the way through so that the knot if snug to the fabric.

Run your needle and thread through the corner once more to secure it in place. Pull all of the way though.

Fold down the next corner just as did before and bring your needle across. Repeat the above steps to secure the corner. Pull the thread taut, but not so tightly that the template curls - this will ensure that the edges of the fabric all stay in place.

Repeat the above steps all of the way around the hexagon. At the last corner run your needle through a couple of times as above and secure with a knot. Cut your thread.

And there you have a completed hexie! Repeat the steps above until you have 9 completed hexagons for your coaster.

Quilt-As-You-Go Coaster Directions:

Draw a light line in pencil 1/4" away from the edge all around your muslin foundation piece. Layer your muslin, batting, and backing as shown ensuring that the backing is right side down and that the pencil markings on the muslin are facing up.

Pop the templates out of all of your hexagons. If you used the method that I described above to make your hexagons than they will hold their shape when the templates are removed. If you used another method they may not hold their shape so well and should be handled with care.

Begin by placing one hexagon in the top, right corner so that it's corners and top edge are flush with the 1/4" lines you drew on the muslin. Pin in place and, if you wish, use pins to baste around it to keep the three quilt layers from shifting.

Sew 1/16 to 1/8" from the edge all of the way around your first hexagon. Obviously, for this one (and a few others) the hexagon goes over the edge of the foundation so just stop sewing when you reach the edge. Make sure to smooth out your hexagon and to keep the edges of the hexie flat as you sew.

Align your next hexie so that it's top edge is butting against the bottom edge of the one you've just sewn. Sew all the way around.

Repeat the steps above until you have your entire muslin covered. For the smaller areas of blank space left on the left hand side of the coaster, trim some excess off of a hexagon you've already attached - once all of the hexies are sewn on you will see this excess, just use the edge of the muslin as a guide (so sorry that I forgot to take pictures of this step) - sew this excess onto the small blank spaces. Most of these small spaces will be covered by the binding, but it's always best to fill in as much as possible.

Evenly trim your coaster down to 4.5" square - this would mean trimming your coaster down about 1/4" on all four sides, but be careful since the coaster may have shrunk slightly with the quilting.

Use the binding strip that you have set aside and bind as desired. I did it the "traditional" way by machine sewing the front side, then folding over and hand sewing the back, but you could machine sew the whole thing on if you wanted! And see all of the pretty quilting that shows on the back from sewing around the hexagons - ohhh yaaaa!

Grab yourself a drink and enjoy! Anne of Green Gables mug totally optional of course but I would highly recommend it *wink*!

So what do y'all think? I really hope you liked this tutorial and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Be sure to send me pictures or add them to the Flickr group if you do make a hexie coaster or two using this tutorial!